


All the little things

by ChestnutBrumby



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Rescue, SVE2018, Scarletvisionexchange2018, super fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-15 02:59:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16054043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChestnutBrumby/pseuds/ChestnutBrumby
Summary: Wanda's first solo mission goes awry but help is closer than she knows.





	All the little things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [livingtheobsessedlife](https://archiveofourown.org/users/livingtheobsessedlife/gifts).



> Julia I threw in all my VERY BEST FLUFF for you mate, no expense spared. I'm warning you now. It's like, double chocolate fudge with coconut ice on the side tooth rotting. You've been warned, read at your own peril!   
> Title is from the Conrad Sewell song 'Remind me'. 
> 
> I would like to shoutout to my amazing beta Jill for checking this over for me - any remaining errors are my own! 
> 
> Takes place a few weeks after the Raft Breakout at the end of Civil War. Written for the Scarlet Vision Exchange 2018!

  
Wanda landed, hands aglow with her scarlet namesake, and pressed her back to a water tower, hearing the faint slosh of liquid within. This skirmish had proven tougher than she had initially thought, and she was glad for Natasha's rigorous endurance training. She had been trying to stop a terrorist breaking into a laboratory for the past half-hour, which felt more like half a day. He fought ruthlessly, his craggy features stern and uncompromising, at least from what she had glimpsed. She couldn't see much in the pitch black of the night, lit only by the dim glow of the industrial area, coupled with the helmet that partially shielded the terrorist's face.  
  
  
This was her first solo mission, and Wanda was determined not to go crying for Steve, Sam or Natasha just because she hadn't kicked ass in the first few minutes. She figured the struggle came from his apparent ability to block her from his mind. She'd once told Ultron it could be hard for her to gain access to some people's thoughts, and initially she thought this man was no different, some people simply having a greater mental ability to block telepaths, whether it was purposeful or simply a natural gift.  
  
But after a half hour of brutal battle, Wanda was now suspecting it was the helmet he wore (it certainly didn't look like much of a fashion statement). He also kept hurtling objects with seemingly nothing more than the powers of his own mind, so he might well have some sort of telekinetic power himself. There was frustration in not knowing, but Wanda was grimly determined not to simply give up because the going was difficult. He had sent her into hiding on the rooftops of Sacramento, which in her opinion was far too nice a city to be terrorizing. Maybe it was just weird to her to be back in America after so many weeks hiding out in Europe. She and Natasha had come back to the States so Nat could visit Clint. Much as Wanda missed the Barton household, she was afraid of seeing disappointment in Laura's eyes. She was also fiercely attached to the three Barton children and wary of bringing her fugitive status down on the family, and so she had volunteered for what seemed like a harmless recon mission.  
  
A series of sharp, noisy clangs rang out against the opposite side of the water tank. Some pierced the double layered housing and Wanda heard water hissing out. With a muffled curse she fired her palms with crimson and lifted off, heading to the next rooftop over. She looked back over her shoulder but didn't spot the man. She frowned. Where had he g-    
  
The pain exploded like blooms of internal fire behind her eyelids. She never even saw the metal piping hurled at her coming. A jagged edge - it had been forcefully wrenched from the next building across - pierced her jacket above the elbow. Another fortunately rounder section thudded into her temple, causing Wanda to all but fall out of the sky. She made a hazy attempt to catch herself with her powers, but it went awry as she clanged into a fire escape then tumbled to the ground.  
  
This was going to hurt like hell tomorrow. Scratch that, this was going to.. hurt like...  
  


 

* * *

 

 

  
  
Vision didn't know why he'd agreed to go to Los Angeles to oversee some of Mr. Stark's belongings being checked into a secure storage facility. It all went as planned of course, a wary moving man hesitating before offering Vision a tablet to sign. When he took it back he held it gingerly, as if he feared Vision had contaminated it somehow.    
  
With the coldness and distance Tony and even Colonel Rhodes had shown him since Leipzig, Vision thought he really ought to have been used to it by now. He thought of Wanda with longing. She would have investigated the emotion he thought might be hurt, or perhaps embarrassment, within his mind. She would have had a logical explanation intermingled with a cutting remark to make about small-minded people needing to be more accepting of other people's differences. (She wouldn't have had a moment's hesitation about referring to him as a person, either). Then she probably would have offered to play chess or go for a walk with him, finding some story to tell him, to take his mind off of it.  
  
Vision missed Wanda terribly. Not in strictly a romantic sense, either. He missed his closest companion in the world. The person who always had time for him. Who never found any of his requests odd. Whose smile was a marked moment in his day each time he saw it.  
  
Vision didn't need to sleep every night, but especially restless this one, he soared high above the glinting lights of LA trying to distract himself. It certainly didn't work as well as when Wanda was at his side, endearingly so much shorter as she walked beside him, or on the occasions they flew together her hands and eyes emitting a familiar scarlet glow that Vision sometimes swore he saw out of the corner of his eye. When he turned, it was always something inconspicuous, something unrelated to Wanda. The glow from a television screen, cellophane catching the light, once a child throwing an LED frisbee to her friend.    
  
The mental link he shared with Wanda, the connection through their very powers that he treasured so much, suddenly lit up with a sharp stab of sensation. It took Vision a moment to register and realize which sensation exactly it was - the one he'd felt when he had been overloaded while burning Ultron from the net and the robot had struck back at him mentally. Pain. It took him another moment to realize the pain belonged to Wanda, not in fact him. It took him even less time to be in motion, frantically honing in on her location and scanning every device and camera in a six-mile radius in an attempt to pinpoint her.  
  
There wasn't a single second he entertained not going to her.

 

 

* * *

 

 

  
  
Wanda became aware of a warm and familiar body cradling her own. Her hearing kicked back in a minute or so after she regained consciousness.  
  
"-to you, that if you open your eyes I will devote every resource that I possess to your health and well being. I swear that I will not leave your side until you order me away, that I will not let anybody harm you. Wanda... please, please wake up."  
  
There was no mistaking that voice, the organization of the mind brushing against her own. Not that Wanda needed either of them to identify the man cradling her gently yet protectively. It was as if her skin already seemed to recall his touch.  
  
"Vision." She mumbled, surprised at how odd her voice sounded. She opened her eyes and found him with the greatest look of relief on his face she could ever imagine on any person before or since.  
  
"Wanda." He breathed. "You're awake." His head bowed at the same time as he gently cradled her a little closer, clearly struggling, and her heart went out to him at his expression. It had been far too long since she'd seen him, she hadn't even known he was near this part of the country. It had crossed her mind if she could wrangle a day or two out of Natasha she could have gotten closer to New York, gone to visit him... and now he was here.  
  
Being reunited with Vision allowed peace wash over her, despite the throbbing pain in her arm and temples. Vision's guilt and worry was at the forefront of her mind, but she dimly noticed they were still in an alley, so at least not too much time had passed while she was out. This was the same alley she had fallen into after- ow, her head. After that. She touched it with a wince, feeling bruised but unbroken skin. Then her hand seemed to find Vision's cheek of its own volition.  
  
His concerned expression softened into something like affection, or perhaps something deeper, something Wanda didn't dare read too much into.  
  
"I was so worried." He breathed, and leaned his face into her touch, so subtly she wasn't sure he was actually doing it.  
  
"I'm sorry. I d-" Wanda tried to focus her fuzzy thoughts. Her head felt slow and sluggish. She knew it was an effect of the concussion she'd suffered. She was careful to maintain collection over her powers. She didn't want to accidentally send a hex bolt burning through a building because she had a headache. "I didn't know you were so close."  
  
"We need to get you someplace safe. The man who did this to you is almost done in the laboratory, he will be out soon."  
  
Wanda groaned. "Ooooh the mission, I was supposed to stop him getting inside!"  
  
"I am afraid it is too late for that Wanda. Please, you have been injured. We must pass the next stage of your mission onto your teammates. I need to get you somewhere safe."  
  
Wanda thought how much this reminded her of how things used to be, except for the stab that happened when he said your teammates.  
  
"You're still an Avenger, Vis. You came to save me, didn't you?" She smiled at him, and the delicate row of gears within his irises spun looking down at her.    
  
"Wanda, we can-" Vision frowned and looked up. A moment later he let out a surprised cry as something forcibly ripped him away from her, Wanda groaning softly as she tumbled from his arms the short distance to the ground. But she wasn't worried about herself.  
  
She boosted herself up with her palms physically, not with her powers, her head shrieking protest at the motion. But when she saw Vision pinned against the wall of a building, the man in the helmet with one arm outstretched, pinning him there though they were about thirty feet apart, Wanda saw red. Proverbially, not with her powers.  
  
"How remarkable. I have not encountered vibranium in some time. Let alone encountered a robot whose very cells are infused with it." Mused the man in a coldly speculative voice. Vision struggled for a moment before he emitted a pained note as the man opened his closed fist. The mindstone lit up a brighter yellow as he struggled, fighting whatever the man was attempting to do to him.  
  
A small part of Wanda's mind had worked out that it wasn't telekinesis the man held sway over, but mostly she was simply filled with a cold, furious anger.  
  
"Don't call him a robot!" Or pin him against a wall or hurt him, but hopefully that was implied.  
  
A crimson blast caught the man and crashed him at high speed through an empty warehouse. Wanda channeled every bit of fury into her powers as she kept propelling the man away from Vision. There was a faint wrenching sound from the distant far wall of the warehouse then a splash from the river beyond it, then Vision collapsed to the ground.  
  
"Vis!" Wanda sprinted though with some unplanned zigzagging to his side, ignoring the pained burn of the cut on her arm and the steadily worsening throb of her head and tip of balance. She didn't care about her own injuries, she had to see if Vision was alright. She didn't realize it when he straightened up and reached for her, but her expression of relief matched Vision's earlier when she had awoken.    
  
"I am-- all right." He was breathing heavily, but shot a smile bravely her way. "That was unpleasant. Come, we must seek shelter, you are still bleeding Wanda." He reminded her gently. "But thank you, for coming to my aid."    
  
She wrapped her arm around his waist and helped steady him.  
  
"We save each other." Wanda murmured with a weary smile, reaching up to touch his face. Her fingertips just brushed the silver line running along the side of his face. Then her hand felt limp at her side and she fainted into Vision's arms.  
  


 

 

* * *

 

  
  
Vision monitored Wanda diligently. He was of course concerned about her health, more so her head injury after he had carefully and gently cleaned then banged her arm. But one of the benefits of sharing a mental link with Wanda, he discovered, was the ability to check upon her health. He had always been somewhat cautious of the bond he and Wanda shared, aware she had once shared something similar with her twin brother. He did not wish to overstep, to cause Wanda any pain. But he knelt by her bed now, the mindstone glowing faintly as he reached across the invisible divide between them.  
  
Her dreams were abstract, fleeting glimpses of colours and silhouettes and light and shadow rather than specific features or faces. She saw a lot of red in her dreams, but Vision put that down to it being the colour of her powers. She was healing well, he decided after carefully studying the inside of her mind. But still he could barely bring himself to leave her side.  
  
He felt a flash of guilt accessing the encrypted email account she was using to communicate with Natasha, passing along the details and location of the man who had attacked he and Wanda to Steve Roger's Avengers team. He felt a pang of longing as he did so because things weren't how they used to be. He missed the remainder of his team, it would have been such a relief to him to simply call Captain Rogers and explain matters directly. Captain Rogers, Agent Romanoff, and Sam Wilson - they'd been there all his life, and it was a huge adjustment now to be without them. But he would not risk Wanda's cover. Natasha could never know it was Vision and not Wanda sending this email.  
  
He had brought Wanda to a hotel, flying her in through a high window then when he went to check in with his human disguise, making sure to access the computers and assign him the correct, corresponding room. Peace had fallen with the setting sun, and the city left them undisturbed as he awaited Wanda's recovery and monitored her vitals.  
  
She looked tiny in the massive bed, a down duvet tucked over her in case she got cold.  
  
"Vis..?" Her voice, some hours later, was just as welcome as when she'd awoken in the alley the first time. Vision tenderly reached out to brush her tangled hair away from her face. Her current hair colour, which he knew was part of her status as a fugitive to change her appearance and remain inconspicuous, was a lighter brown than her natural shade. He quite liked this colour on her. It caught faint golden highlights when the light hit it just so.  
  
"Wanda, how are you feeling?"  
  
"Tired, but a little clearer in the head. Where are we?" He could see her looking around curiously, taking in the clearly expensive bedclothes, wood paneling and artwork on the walls, the open door to the ensuite and the opposite glass door providing a view of a balcony with a fireplace built into the wall. The faint yet pleasant smell of woodsmoke was in the air even inside from the previous occupant.  
  
"The Archer Hotel. I am sorry I did not consult you before bringing you here, but you were unconscious at the time."  
  
A smile flickered on her lips. "I forgive you. You did save my life after all."  
  
He kept his hand in her hair, wanting to maintain physical contact. The way her emerald eyes sparkled up at him caused his insides to begin a nervous dance, though he was not entirely certain as to why.  
  
"I thought we saved each other."  
  
"I suppose we did." Her smile lasted only a moment before before her lips tightened and her eyes filled with worry. "Vis, are you alright? That man, he - oh, I'll have to let the others know he got away!"  
  
"I already have, I emailed Natasha for you, do not worry Wanda. And yes, it was unpleasant when he seized control of me, but thanks to you it only lasted a moment."  
  
Wanda surprised Vision when she sat up and wound her arms around his neck. His own hands came up tentatively, pressing against her back. When they received no resistance he put both arms around her smaller, slender figure. She nestled against him, causing his heart-rate to increase despite the fact he was under no physical exertion.  
  
"It's so hard being away from you, Vis. Every mission I go on... I still think 'Oh Vision can setup there' or 'Vision will catch that' and it's another reminder everything is different now."  
  
"I miss you too, Wanda. The compound is so empty. It is almost as if walls and furniture carry memories of what used to be."  
  
For a moment they fell quiet. Vision felt the minute slackening of Wanda's muscles, the distant thread of exhaustion. "You need to rest." He said gently, oddly reluctant to actually pull back from her embrace. Her breath tickled the patch of skin below his neck when she replied.  
  
"I just woke up. How can I still be tired?"  
  
"Well you did suffer a concussion five and a half hours ago."  
  
"That must be it." She let him go slowly and sank back against the pillows. Vision hadn't been able to work out why there were six of them on the bed. It was clearly designed for two people, yet three pillows each seemed excessive.  
  
"Do you have a headache? I have some painkillers here." He offered, noticing the pained crease of her brow and the tension around her eyes.  
  
She wrinkled her nose. "I hate taking painkillers. I'll try sleeping some more and see how I feel when I wake up." She hesitated, her eyes not leaving his. "Stay with me?"  
  
He settled on the edge of the bed. "Of course." Leaving had never even entered his mind. Wanda needed him. "Do you need anything?"  
  
Her voice already sounded drowsy. "Could you bring me a damp washcloth at all? Maybe a hairbrush? Just keep mirrors away from me. I must look like some sort of swamp monster."  
  
"You look just as lovely as ever." Vision assured Wanda, and was rewarded when her lips turned up in a smile.    
  
Both items were among the many amenities of the hotel room. Vision brought a small bowl of water with a washcloth and rested a hairbrush on the bedside table. Wanda managed to clean her hand and arm on the injured side, but then using the cut arm and her clearly pained movements as she tried to wash her face was to much for Vision. His hand closed over hers, stilling her fingers.    
  
"May I?"  
  
She looked surprised for a second, but she nodded without any other hesitation. Vision found when he had the damp washcloth in his hand he was afraid to make Wanda uncomfortable and so used feather-light touches to clean smudges and a few faint bloodstains off Wanda's face, repeatedly covering the same area rather than risk using too much pressure. Wanda's eyes drifted closed and she sank back against the pillow nest, but he could tell from the contented hum of her mind she wasn't asleep. The sensation of safety and being nurtured he could just sense from her assured him he wasn't causing her any distress. Vision knew he could have silently sent a mental request to Wanda when he needed her to turn her head slightly, but the temptation to place two fingers against her chin to do so proved too much. She responded to the slightest pressure from him, as if she knew what he wanted before he did.    
  
Once her face was clean... well perhaps several minutes after that if he was being strictly honest... Vision shyly reached for her left arm, the right crimson of his hand hovering just shy of touching her. Though her eyes were still closed she seemed to understand what he was asking anyway, and trustingly flipped over her arm so the palm faced upwards, sliding it into his waiting hand. He cleaned every speck of dirt from her skin from her bicep down to her fingertips with the same tender thoroughness he had bestowed upon her face. He paid particular attention when he got to her hand, her small one lying upon his larger, startling against the natural crimson of his skin. But not startling in a way that bothered him. In a way that made him want to see the same thing many, many times.  
  
He had always been fascinated by her hands. He carefully removed the rings she typically wore so he could clean her skin, and without them her hands looked bare and delicate. But even like this, there was so much power in them. Vision thought that perhaps aside from her eyes (especially lit with crimson light, somehow enticing and exciting at once) that Wanda's hands were his very favourite feature. Once she was clean, without thinking he lowered his head and pressed a gentle kiss to her fingertips.  
  
When he set her hand down her eyes were open again, drowsy, but watching him.    
  
"Would you like me to fix your hair as well?" He offered, knowing how she always used to like to keep her hair neatly brushed and arranged, even if she was intending to spend the entire day within the Avengers Compound.  
   
"You don't mind?"  
  
Mind was not quite the right word. He only nodded, and Wanda sat up slowly, careful not to jostle or move too fast. She wrapped the duvet around the front half of her body but patted the bed beside her as she turned away to let him know he could do more than perch on the edge the way he had been. Vision swung his own legs up and sat cross-legged behind her, finding their height difference made the rest easy.  
  
It was a novel but exceptionally welcome experience to brush hair. Specifically Wanda's hair. Vision had always been fascinated by tactile sensations, and Wanda's hair was a rich tapestry sliding through his fingers as he shifted each carefully brushed segment. Silky, soft, delicate, light - Vision wondered if it would be appropriate to offer to fix Wanda's hair on an occasion where she wasn't injured. As with cleaning her face he made sure not to hurt her, feeling as if he hardly dared to breathe when he discovered a tangle or snarl and moved the brush through one tiny strand at a time to remove it.  
  
Though he could no longer see Wanda's facial expressions the relaxed set of her shoulders and a constant stream of contentment assured him he wasn't making her uncomfortable. He was surprised when he realized over an hour had passed since Wanda awakened.  
  
She was fast falling asleep now though, and so Vision carefully set the brush on the bedside table and touched Wanda's shoulder, encouraging her to lie down. She curled without protest onto her side, nestling more deeply into the covers she'd had wrapped around her.     
  
As he went to bring his hand back her found her fingers wrapping around his own for a moment. Gratitude tried to push aside the sleepiness in her voice.  
  
"Vision. You're the best person in my life."  
  
Person. She said person. Vision stayed sitting on the side of her bed with Wanda's back touching his knee, watching over her sleep, turning over the phrase time and again.  
  
He had to find a way to fix things between the two fractured teams of Avengers. Because he simply didn't know how he was going to continue through his life without Wanda Maximoff.  
  



End file.
